Survey: Bad breath a turnoff

NEW YORK, March 31 (UPI) -- Most U.S. adults ages 18-34 admit backing off an "intimate moment" because they were unprepared to deal with a date's bad breath, a survey indicates.

A Dentyne Safe Breath Survey about attraction indicated there are some things people could look past and still have a good date but only one in seven said they could overlook bad breath.

Fifty percent said they could ignore sweaty palms, 47 percent said they could forgive wrinkled clothes, but 86 percent said bad breath on the first date was a deal breaker.

In addition, 71 said they felt less confident meeting someone of the opposite sex if their breath wasn't fresh, 58 percent said they lost interest in someone they were attracted to due to bad breath and 48 percent of women said they would end a relationship with someone with consistently bad breath.

The survey was conducted for the Dentyne gum company by Wakefield Research among 1,025 nationally representative U.S. adults, ages 18-34. The margin of error was 3.1 percentage points.